Monday, December 22, 2008

Women in sports: Be "20-percent better"

A Dec. 20 article in the Globe and Mail, "Women on TV: Looks First, Knowledge Later," puts a new spin on an old story about the premium on sexual attractiveness for women covering sports. The new angle: How Web sites such as Deadspin are at once raising the profile and diminishing the journalistic credentials of female sports journalists. Comments on sports blogs are degrading, insulting and sometimes threatening. To be considered credible, an NHL senior vice president of broadcasting recommends women be "20 percent better" than their male counterparts.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

education, suffrage, equal rights and still without the appropriate facade the interior goes unplumbed. The customer is always right.

Anonymous said...

John Kruk, Lou Holtz and the dude with the mullet on Hockey Tonight aside....

It's not like ESPN hires lots of ugly men, either.

Would Kirk Herbstreit have gotten his job at age 27 or so if he looked like Patrick Ewing (pretty much the ugliest man on earth)?

Is it really a gender focused issue? Or is it more of a human attractiveness issue?